How Suspense Is Created In 'No Country For Old Men' By The Coen Brothers

The Coen brothers use an overall constant mysterious plot for the film to obtain a suspended atmosphere for the audience. The film beings with the main character, Llewellyn Moss, talking about his life and relationship with his father, whilst still images of the dull, deserted countryside are shown, this has the audience in wonder of what is to come as it is unclear of what the film is about; creating suspension.

After a few more scenes, Llewellyn Moss slowly approaches a rusty car. The Coen brother’s directing of slow pace movements builds up tension as he attempts to open the door. This puts the audience in a position to expect an outrageous action to take place, i.e. a person jumping out in a split second or a loud noise, however, a dying man covered in dried blood is revealed, helplessly in pain.

In the still image to the right is, Anton Chigurh, who plays the silent killer in the film and creates suspension with his unique murder weapon. Every time he approaches a keyhole in door to ‘shoot’ it down, the time of which this action takes place is lingered for a few seconds, which increases the anxiety of the audience. The first moment this took place, the audience were not expecting the loud ‘bang’ noise to then take place after the slight pause, which in effect had the audience ‘jumping’ and screeching.

Tension is dramatically created for over a long period of time, from when Llewellyn Moss is followed using Anton’s tracker device to when they have a shoot out on the lifeless street and the villain disappears. The flashing red light of the tracking device that Llewellyn finds creates suspension, as the audience know the killer is on his way, yet they are unaware of how close he is. After the shoot-out, Anton is nowhere to be found, which has the audience in question of where he has gone. This too creates suspension as the audience wonder whether he will ‘pop-out’ of nowhere.

Ehen and Joel Coen use parallel editing to show two events (Llewellyn dragging the briefcase of money through a ventilation system and Anton searching for him) taking place in two different locations but at the same point in order to create suspension. The audience attempt to make a link between the two events and realise that Anton is in fact, after Llewellyn and the money. The audience are in awe whether Llewellyn will escape in time or not.